Ventilating railroad-gabs



G. F. FOOTE.

VENTILA'IING RAILROAD CARS.

No. 11,268. Patented July 11, 1854.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE F. FOOTE, OF BUFFALO, NFAV YORK. i

VENTILATING RAILROAD-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent. No. 11,268, dated July 11, 1854.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE. F. Foo'rn, of the city of Buffalo, in the State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Ventilating and Heating Railroad- Cars and Excluding Dust Therefrom; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, in which Figure I is a perspective view with one side partly removed to show the interior arrangen'lent. Fig. II, is a longitudinal vertical section through the center of the car. Figs. III and IX are transverse sections. Fig. X is a ground plan.

In my improved plan the air is taken from the top of thecar, passed down through a shower of water of some extent to wash out the dust and other impurities, brought in contact with a stove or furnace to heat it and then admitted at various places up through the bottom, so as to distribute equally to all parts of the car.

On the top of the car at about its middle I make what I term a bonnet, represented at A, Figs. I, II, and III. It consists of a rectangular box about four feet in length and breadth and fourteen inches high and is placed in the center and about one inch above the roof of the car. Both ends are closed by swing valves which open inward only, as represented at a, a, Fig. II, and outside of the valves the ends of the bonnet and the passage of air thereto is covered by a wire gauze or screen similar but perhaps much finer than that which ordinarily covers the chimney of a locomotive. In order to extend the surface and compensate for the obstruction of the air the top of the bonnet may be extended farther longitudinally than the bottom and thus stretch the gauze diagonally across the air passage, at an angle say of 30 with the top of the car. This gauze serves not merely to deflect the sparks and cinders which come from the locomotive but also to condense any smoke that may be in the air. The principle is the same as that by which flame is cooled and extinguished in Davys safety lamps for mines. We have frequent examples of the readiness with which smoke is condensed when coming in contact with a cold metallic surface in stove pipes, and it would be undoubtedly condensed by the gauze which covers the smoke pipe of a locomotive were that not heated by the fires from the boiler. In this case, however, the gauze is always kept cool by being kept constantly in contact with a strong current of air, and I have found it in practice to be perfectly effectual to take out every particle of smoke from the air which enters the car, and is of great importance where the diffusers hereinafter mentioned are not in use. Into both sides of the bonnet open the air passages or chambers B, B, B, B, Figs. I, II, III. They have a sectional area of one half the end of the bonnet and extend from it to the sides of the car, there pass down on the inside to the tank below, conveying to it the air which enters the bonnet. I have made them of wood lined with zinc, seven inches by forty in the clear.

The tank 0, Figs. I, II, III, IV, and IX, placed under the body of the car, serves both for a reservoir of water R, and a place for the stove or furnace G. It is the width of the car in length on the upper side, about four and a half feet on the lower, three and a half feet wide, and twenty-six inches deep, having an orifice near the top at one end to supply it with water and one in the bottom to draw it off again when too impure. About midway from each end to the center are partitions X, X, across the tank, made of zinc or galvanized iron, perforated for the passage of the stove pipe at s, for the pipe that supplies the stove with fresh air at a, and for the diffusers at 4:, a. This partition serves to conduct the cool air to the bottom of stove, to prevent the escape of heated air up the air chambers B. B, and to prevent the spattering of water against the stove as it descends the air chambers B, B. From the tank on both sides extend the air passages D, D, Figs. II and IV and X, to the several orifices E, E, E, E, E E through the bottom into the body of the car, Figs. I, II, and X. These orifices are covered by grates and are placed at equal distances along the aisle and should together, as well as the air passages leading to them, have an open sectional area equal to that of the end of the bonnet. Fig. IV, represents the tankand air passages in perspective. It is manifest that whichever way the car may run the current of air created thereby impinging on the front valve will open it and the rear valve being closed by the same force the current will be deflected down through the air chambers and out through the grated orifices into the body of the car for the ventilation thereof. Thence is escapes by some of the ordinary ventilators out of the top.

For the purpose of regulating the amount of air I place in the air passages B, B, at the point where they deflect downward into the body of the car, hinge valves which close by their own weight, shutting up the passage. (See i, 2', Figs. III and XI.) On the inside of the car and against the middle and upper part of the air chamber B, B, are placed straight metallic rods f, f, Fig. III and XI, the ends of which bear against the under sides of the valve and by sliding up or down raise or lower them to increase or diminish the size of the passage. They have a spring catch, 2, to hold them to their places and a graduated scale 9 (Fig. XI) to show their variations.

The shower for purifying the air is made within the perpendicular portions of the air chambers B, B. and is produced by a force pump J, Figs. II and VI, and the diffusers 0, 0, Figs. II, V, VI, and IX. The force pump is one of the ordinary forms of rotary pumps made to run in either direction. It is attached to the truck of the cars about equidistant from the wheels and is driven by a belt passing around one of their axles.

The diffuser is made of metallic tubes about one inch in diameter. It stands on the bottom of the tank in the water near one corner, passes directly up above the height of the stove and then branches off in two arms each of which pass up the center of the air chambers B, B, to within about six inches of the top. At three or more places upon the upright portion of these arms are soldered inverted conical append-- ages about one and a half inches high and making an angle with the tube of about 45 degrees, with the extreme upper edge turned up all around to a perpendicular. They are represented at I, P, P, Figs. V, VI, a ground plan at VII, and a full size vertical section at VIII. Vithin and near the bottom of these appendages are four holes into the tubes about one-fourth of an inch in diameter as represented at 1", 1*, Figs. VII and VIII, from which the water issuing from the tube and striking against the conical appendages is spread into a thin sheet and thence by the upturned edge diffused in a fine spray through the descending air. The top of the tube is closed by a valve which held down to its place by a spring as represented at Q, Figs. V and VI. The pump should have sufficient capacity to fill the tubes when the cars are moving at a slow rate. hen going rapidly the excess of water will be discharged through the valves at the top. In Figs. II and VI, L, L, rep resents rigid and K, K, flexible portions of the tubes connecting the force pump J with the diffusers. Through one, water is drawn from the tank and through the other sent up into the diffusers. In order that the same effect may be produced whichever way the pump may be turned by different directions of the car the lower part of the difiuser is also made into two branches, as represented in Figs. V and VI, with two valves in each V, V, and U, U, opening upward only and placed one above and one below each connecting tube, the places for which are shown at IV, V. The lower parts of the diffuser, which are covered by the water in the tank, are enlarged and covered by a strain M, M, to keep out impurities that may clog the pump and tubes. Fig. V, is a vertical section of the diffuser with all its details. Fig. VI is a perspective view of the same with its connecting tubes and force pump attached.

The stove is about three feet long by two in width and one in height. It stands on the bottom of the tank, at about its center, on feet about eight inches high, sufficient to raise it some two inches or more above the waters surface. A tube 2, Fig. III, leads to it from the floor of the car to supply air for combustion, which is regulated by an ordinary stove damper affixed to the floor at 00, Figs. III and X. A smoke pipe passes from it up through one corner of one of the air chambers B, and through the top of the car, as shown at H, H, and the smoke cap I, Fig. III, and II, Figs. II and X. There is in the ground plan, Fig. X: G, the stove; closed by a lid Y through which to supply fuel, and a hole in the floor of the car covered by a grate affords access to it.

The location and arrangement of the stove with its pipes, the diffusers, &c., are shown in the ground plan, Fig. X; G, the stove; Y, lid; E orifice through the floor and grate; 00, register; H, smoke pipe; N, bottom of diffuser; O, 0, its branches; B, B, opening into air chambers; X, X, partitions; I), D, air tubes; E, E, E, E, orifices through the floor into the air tubes and the grates; L pipes leading from the pump to the diffuser. The vertical transverse sections, Figs. III and IV, show, one, the stove and pipes, the other the diffuser separately.

I am aware that it has been attempted to extinguish the sparks from a locomotive by passing the smoke therefrom through a shower of water and that arrangements have been made for condensing acid gases, smoke and fumes from lead and copper by the same means in smelting Works and other manufactories. I do not therefore claim the passing of a current of air through a shower of Water for any other purpose than that herein particularly set forth; but

lVhat I do claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. The arrangement and construction of the apparatus above described or other mode substantially the same for ventilating a railroad car with purified or heated air or both, as above set forth.

2. And I also claim the diffuser and its 15 equivalents for the uses and purposes herein specified.

PHILo ALLEN, STEPHEN B. BUTTS. 

